[Startup] Built to Blast

Is Rigshooter in Startup a thing?

I have not played Startup in a while, and this list might be proof of that. It mostly stems from a theoretical change in the runner meta: less program recursion, with Simulchip rotated, and one less cheap splashable cheat to get through ICE. I know, boat and Bankhar see play, but I was wondering whether Startup runners have adapted to respect the fragility of breakers by running duplicates. In short: is rig-shooter viable?

The Deck

Retribution is the core card here, and the way we deliver it is through Drago. In Startup, most tag punishment is in green: Retribution, Trust Operation, and now the game-winning End of the Line. In addition, the only other corp ID that can fire Drago on tempo- besides R+ of course- is Built to Last. With a way to tax or punish the runner for attempting to take down Drago, we're in business. With Startup-legal recursion we can restore the Drago if it gets trashed early. And we can protect it in the remote with cheap barriers we can toss at the runner with ZATO City Grid. This synergizes well with Trust Operation, an otherwise weak tag punishment, as it allows us to return ice on the remote while trashing resources for free. Yakov Erikovich Avdakov gives us extra value when we do fling our ICE or when the runner eventually threads our Drago. We can attempt to imprison the runner and land the kill with a double End of the Line. An alternative win condition is to land a couple well placed Retributions on the fracter of choice and/or boat, to turn our gameplan into a lock-out rigshooter. With barriers installed in front of every server, we can sit back with our feet on the desk and score out agendas as they come.

Money

The list doesn't have a ton of economy, and relies on Hedge Fund and the huge tempo of Oaktown Renovation, which in BTL nets us 3 credits on the first advancement. Whenever you're left to click for credits, don't forget to check for advanceable ICE first. Even if unrezzed, we aren't giving away much information, and we can make those Ice Walls a little more annoying to get through. In a few games I've thrown down an ice I couldn't afford (Pharos or Ballista) almost hoping for the runner to snipe a Send a Message.

The shootin'

A good start is to slap down an Oaktown Renovation behind a barrier and advance it once. This gets us ahead on credits and baits out a fracter, which we want to see installed so we can shoot it off the board. As soon as Oaktown is scored or stolen, we want to start looking for Drago. While we do that, we should shore up centrals with cheap code gates and barriers, trowing Ice Walls and Ballista on the remote, and ZATO City Grid and Yakov Erikovich Avdakov in it. Ballista is generally a bad ICE, but I like the flexibility when throwing it at the runner with ZATO, as it can do the rigshooting for us without needing to set up Drago, or end the run. Sometimes our mean friend takes a while to show up, and if the runner ever dips below 8 credits we can punish them with Public Trail into Retribution. End of the Line is always a possibility, and at least gives the runner something else to worry about. It's also a good alternative wincon into Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist, where we can shoot down the Marrow instead and take advantage of the core damage before we get milled into oblivion.